Martin Cummins Movies

Based on a comic book series created by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, the made-for-cable Painkiller Jane stars Emmanuelle Vaugier as Jane Elizabeth Browning, a young Marine captain who is the sole survivor when her Special Ops force is exposed to a biochemical "retrovirus" weapon after raiding an illegal lab. It turns out that the retrovirus has endowed Jane with miraculous self-healing powers, making her virtually invulnerable. Unfortunately, she isn't given much of an opportunity to exercise this unique gift before she is locked up in a military hospital on orders from government shrink Lucas Knight (Tate Donovan). Unwilling to act as guinea pig for an upcoming series of medical experiments, Jane escapes her confines and becomes a fugitive, not only from the government but also from a secret conspiratorial cartel which numbers Dr. Knight (aka Lucas Insley) among its members! She spends the rest of the film thwarting villains and writing wrongs (usually in Bionic Woman-style slow motion action scenes), with the help of her new cohort, handsome thief Nick (Eric Dane). Former Shaft star Richard Roundtree is seen as Jane's Marine mentor Col. Watts, who reluctantly assumes the "Inspector Javert" role in tracking her down on behalf of the authorties. Billed as an "original event" when it first aired December 9, 2005 on the Sci-Fi Channel, the entertaining but highly derivative Painkiller Jane has "two-hour series pilot" written all over it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Liberty Wallace (Linda Fiorentino), the wife and business partner of wealthy weapons manufacturer Victor Wallace (Oliver Platt), is on her way to her regular assignation with her boyfriend, Russell (Martin Cummins), an actor who's about to go on-stage for the closing night of his hit play. Their plans are ruined by a mysterious gunman who calls himself Joe (Wesley Snipes). Joe straps Russell to a bomb in his dressing room, which will go off if he moves or speaks too loudly. Joe then calls Liberty on her cell phone and coerces her into chaining herself to a hot dog stand in a plaza outside the theater. The hot dog stand is rigged with a bomb, which will go off if Liberty hangs up her cell phone, or when it runs out of battery power. Joe also has a high-powered sniper rifle, her company's best gun, trained on Liberty. Joe doesn't make any demands at first, but it's clear that he has a problem with Liberty's weapons empire, which she inherited from her late father. He eventually tells Liberty that his young daughter was killed in a school shooting by one of the guns her company manufactured. Joe lets Liberty know that she's going to die, but she can die a hero if she exposes her company's shady business dealings and political connections before she's killed. As Joe monitors and records her every move, Liberty reveals secrets about her own past, and her business dealings. When Victor, who's also having an affair, finds out that his wife has been taken hostage, he's torn between following company protocol -- protecting himself and allowing his wife to be killed -- and going to help her. Liberty Stands Still was written and directed by Kari Skogland. The film premiered on Cinemax in July 2002. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-cable action-drama, Oliver Sloan (Parker Stevenson) is the son of a Las Vegas resort magnate whose showplace hotel has just been given its grand re-opening. However, Sloan's board of directors is not happy with the hotel's profitability, and he knows he's about to be replaced. One evening, a fire breaks out on the 20th floor of the hotel; it soon becomes evident that the sprinkler systems in the hotel are not working, and Sloan begins to suspect that the fire did not happen by accident. Meanwhile, a number of guests are trapped as the fire rages out of control, including Jim (Meat Loaf), an engineer working for the hotel who tries to figure out a route to safety for himself and the guests, and Evans (William McNamara), a TV reporter who begins broadcasting live from the burning building. Trapped also features Callum Keith Rennie and Suki Kaiser. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this dark independent drama, Michael (Darcy Belsher) is an out of work actor who has been trying to pull himself out of a downward spiral of drug abuse that set in after the death of his mother. Michael's best friend Kris (Martin Cummins) is, if anything, in even worse shape; a gifted artist, Kris' appetite for drugs has all but silenced his muse, and his girlfriend Ryan (Francoise Robertson) has little interest in helping him control his dangerous appetites. The drug-related death of a close friend and a bizarre experience with a junkie prostitute (Helen Shaver) convinces Michael that he needs to clean up once and for all, but Kris may be too far gone to save. Written and directed by Martin Cummins (who also plays Kris), We All Fall Down also features a distinguished supporting cast, including Barry Pepper and Rene Auberjonois. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The police arrive at a murder scene where two people lie dead. The only witness, a man named Gerard (Michael Riley), claims that one of the victims shot himself after killing the other. Gerard also insists that the crime is actually the handiwork of an alien energy being who takes up residence in human hosts, forcing them to commit even more grisly crimes -- and that he, Gerard, has been chasing this being for centuries. This episode utilizes excerpts from such earlier Outer Limits installments as "Ripper," "Heart's Desire," "A Stitch in Time," and "Living Hell." Originally telecast August 20, 1999, "Better Luck Next Time" was the final episode of The Outer Limits' fifth season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The worst in a string of increasingly pointless sequels to Sean S. Cunningham's crude slasher hit, this installment provided clear evidence that the "slasher" subgenre, already creatively dead, was no longer financially viable. This time around, unstoppable supernatural thug Jason Voorhees -- imprisoned at the bottom of a lake by his telekinetic foe Tina in the previous film -- is reanimated yet again after being goosed by an underwater electrical cable, freeing him to stow away aboard a shipload of standard-issue obnoxious teenagers en route to Manhattan. The title ultimately proves a bit of a cheat, since the majority of Jason's homicidal hijinks take place aboard the ship until the film's final reel, during which he pursues a handful of survivors through the streets of the Big Apple. Thanks to heavy MPAA cuts, the mayhem is more subdued here than in any other films of the series -- splatter fans primed by the previous chapters' copious bloodletting will be left high and dry. Despite a very amusing "teaser" trailer that suggested that the film might be a semi-parody, writer/director Rob Hedden and company play things tediously straight. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide